Austin Bay Blog

This link leads to littlegreenfootballs.

The report suggests Update 3 to my original post is more than a speculative scenario. It more than reinforces my point that “Gitmo/Abu Ghraib” is used as an emotional/political weapon by Al Qaeda– it demostrates how they “operationalize” information into action on a global scale.

(I’ll add the key grafs of Update 3 below, since there is no direct link to it– you’d go back to that long, now meandering original Newsweek post.)

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this report, I do not know Mr. Raman’s work. I know India has been at war with Islamo-fascists much longer than the US has been. But I also know what Raman describes is how a calculated terror organization works, one that harbors long range, international political goals. (ASIDE TO NEWSWEEK’S STAFF: Their goals do not include freedom of the press. But y’all do have some common political ground– I’ll bet Hizb ut-Tahrir doesn’t like George W Bush, either. )

The report from lgf:

According to an Indian security analyst, the Islamist rioting in Afghanistan is being deliberately incited by well-organized agents of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terror gang, who quickly recognized the Newsweek “Quran desecration” story as a propaganda windfall.

South Asian political and security analyst Bahukutumbi Raman said the protests in Afghanistan were not spontaneous.

“They had been well-prepared, and were well-organized and well-orchestrated. Groups of students went from town to town instigating the local students to take to the streets.”

Raman, who is director of the Institute For Topical Studies in the Indian city of Chennai, also reported that many members of the police and army appeared to have sympathized with the protestors.

He cited “reliable Afghan sources” as saying the demonstrations had been organized by a growing global movement called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami.

Raman describes Hizb ut-Tahrir as a veteran group with a secretive
leadership and structure, which shares al-Qaeda’s goal of an Islamic
caliphate under Islamic law, but focuses on mass agitation rather than acts of terrorism.

The movement emphasized the importance of clandestine penetration of security forces, he said. The violence in Afghanistan illustrated “the extent of its penetration not only in the student community, but also in the Afghan security forces.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir (Islamic Party of Liberation) was founded in the then Jordanian-occupied East Jerusalem in the early 1950s and has spread across Europe and Asia, with a particularly strong foothold in the Central Asian Republics.

Update 3 of the original pos.t (Yes, I’ve posted it a couple of times, but its key to understanding the intricate war we’re in. )

“I will bet that Al Qaeda has sympathizers in Afghanistan and Pakistan who are cued to react to Western news reports that “insult Islam” – particularly reports involving US troops. The “fifth-columnist” throws the first stone. If he can get a couple of bored teenage boys to throw a second and third stone he’s done his job. It doesn’t always result in a riot but if a reporter’s on the scene, Al Qaeda gets another “the Muslim street is angry” story. I offer this as a scenario, not a proven fact, but it is a common ploy.”

UPDATE: See this Scripps-Howard news report quoting Afghan commander LTG Carl Eichenberry that he thinks the Koran desecration report did not lead directly to the Afghan riots. But read GEN Myers description of Eichenberry’s statement closely, in light of Mr Raman’s analysis.

Here’s what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs GEN Myers is quoted as saying on VOA on May 12:

“It is the judgment of our commander in Afghanistan, General Eichenberry, that in fact the violence that we saw in Jalalabad was not necessarily the result of the allegations about disrespect for the Koran, but more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President (Hamid) Karzai and his Cabinet are conducting in Afghanistan,” Myers said. “He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine.”

Interesting — it was “not all tied to the article.” I don’t doubt that’s true. Fits in with the lgf story and the scenario I trotted out in my original post.